Orchard Laborer Dies when Crushed Between a Motor Grader and Semi-Truck in Washington State

Details

• Personal Author:
  Clark, Randy ; Jalonen, Eric ; Rappin, Christina ; Schoonover, Todd
• Corporate Authors:
  Washington (State). Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (WA FACE) ; Washington (State). Department of Labor and Industries ; Washington (State). Safety and Health Assessment and Research for Prevention
• Description:
  On September 27, 2009, a 38-year-old orchard worker was fatally injured when he was crushed between a motor grader and a semi-truck with a trailer. The semi-truck, which was at the orchard to pick up apple bins, was unable to maintain traction and got stuck while attempting to travel up a gravel orchard road with a 6-7% grade. The worker and the semi-truck driver were attempting to tow the stuck semi-truck with the assistance of a motor grader operator. The operator was reversing the motor grader downhill into position so the worker could attach the chain from the front of the semi-truck to the rear of the motor grader. According to the operator of the motor grader, he attempted to use the brakes about 40 feet uphill from the semi-truck but they failed, causing the motor grader to collide with the front of the semi-truck. According to witnesses, the motor grader momentarily stopped about seven feet from the semi-truck, and then suddenly moved backwards crushing the worker and semi-truck driver between the two vehicles. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) was contacted and the worker and truck driver were transported to the hospital. Approximately 1 hour after the incident the worker died. To prevent similar incidences the Washington State Fatality and Control Evaluation Team (FACE) recommends: 1. Employers should implement and enforce the use of job hazard analysis (JHA) tools and techniques to identify and eliminate hazards. 2. Employers should create and enforce comprehensive standard operating procedures (SPOs) for towing vehicles. 3. Employers should ensure that all heavy mobile machinery is equipped with functioning safety systems and alarms. 4. All operators of heavy machinery should perform a safety inspection before operating machinery. Inspections should include functional testing of safety devices. Designers and manufacturers of motor graders should: 5. Design and manufacture motor graders with safety features that notify the operator that there are workers near or in the path of the motor grader.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Agriculture Automobiles Demography Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Men Occupational Health Race Factors Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Agricultural-workers Demographic-characteristics Humans Injuries Injury-prevention Machine-operation Machine-operators Motor-vehicles OSHA Region 10 Racial-factors Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Sociological-factors Training Traumatic-injuries Work-areas Workers

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Agriculture ; Hispanic - Agricultural ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Farming ; Foreign Born Workers ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE09WA047
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Washington ; OSHA Region 10
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-21
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20045922
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2015-104097
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 09WA047, 2013 Feb ; :1-21
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  11 - Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2005/07/01
• End Date:
  2021/06/30
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5e8e11b37be5907fc5a37ad7daba7856c9bc6cfbe54c2f694641c606770a5f7afe7f761c548c53ab32d8c5dbb47ede6b2706c82bd90e8d5cca764d8416ab953b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/165081/cdc_165081_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.06 MB ]